Ore-smelting furnace.



PATENTED JUNE 9 1908. No 890,232 J. T- JONESI 1 ORE SMELTING FURNACE. I

I APPLICATION FILED DEC. 23, 1907.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

No. 890,232. PATENTED JUNE 9, 1908;

J. T. JONES.

OR E SMBLTING FURNACE.

APPLiOATION FILED DEO.23.190". s SHEETS-SHEET 2.

P 75 73 ,9 HEB EH11 7; I, 11m l I N 890 232. PATENTED JUNE 9 1908.

O J. T. JONES.

ORE SMELTING FURNACE. APPLIUATION FILED DEU- 23,1907- 3 SHEETS-SHEET 3 UNITED STATES PrgENT OFFICE.

JOHN T. JONES, OF IRON MOUNTAIN, MIOHIGAN, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO GEORGE A. ST.

CLAIR, OF DULUTH, MINNESOTA.

'oREsMEL'rIne FURn'AcE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 9, 1908 Application filed December 23, 1907. Serial No. 407,772.

To all whom it may concern: v

Be it known'that I, JOHN T. Jones, a citizen of the United States, residing at Iron Mountain, in the countyof Dickinson and State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Improvement in OreSmelting Furnaces, of which the following is a specifi'ca t1on.

The primary object of my invention is to providea novel construction of furnace, ion

the order of that forming the subject of U. S.

Patent No. 866,280,grante d to me September 17, 1907, whereby it shall-be adapted to perform asenn-smelting action, in the sense of melting the metal out of the ore without melting the other the advantage of saving the open-hearth or other melting of the metal after thus separating it from the ore.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows my improved furnace by a view in vertical sectional elevation, with the upper portionof the ore-stack broken away; F g. 2 is a section takenthrough the cooling-chamber at the line 2 on Fig. 1 and viewed in the direction of the arrow, and Figs. 3 and 4 are views like that presented in Fig. 1 but showing different modifications of the structure.

Referring more particularly to Fig. 1: a coal-burning furnace of or lined with suitable brick, as the magnesite variety thereof, is represented at 5 as extend ng from below'the ground-level to a height of about twenty-five feet, more or less, above the same, and cont aining a fuel-chamber 6, the desirable diameter of which is about two feet, for burning.

as the preferred fuel, soft coal ona grate 7,

above an air-blast inlet 8, below which is in-' dicated a rotary conveyer 9 for removing the ashes. A chamber 10 of relatively large pro- )ortions, and also formed or lined with such brick, is erected on a substantial foundation adjacent tothe fu mace-5 and is provided with a sloping roof 11 from the apex of which the ore-stack 12, likewise formed of or lined with such brick, rises to a height of, say, one hundred feet, more or less. In opposite walls of the chamber are formed ram-openings 13 to the desired number, eacl'r opening alining with one in the opposite chamber-wall to ormit rams, indicated at 14, to be provider on one wall and adapted to be reciprocated by hydraulic or other suitable power, for Workconstituents thereof, with cedure is as follows:

resented, is provided a tap-hole 15. A flueneck 16 connects the furnace-chamber 6, from between its ends, and preferably from about midway between them, with the adj acent side of the chamber. This neck is, by preference, composed of'solid carbonaceous material, as graphite in block-form, or a mixture of pulverized graphiticfcarbon, in the proportion of about ten per cent. and pulverized coke in the proportion of about ninety per cent., with a suflicient quantity of binding material, such as.co'al.tar,-the mixture being compacted to solid form by hydraulic or other. pressure and then hardened by baking. .This. material renders the flue proof against destruction under the heat to which it is subjected from the burning gases which pass through it to the exclusion of air. The construction illustrated in Fig. 3 differs from that presented in Fig. 1, only in placing the base of the chamber 10 below that of the furnace 5 and running the flue into it at its j unction with the lower end of the stack; and the construction shown in Fig. 4 differs from that presented in Fig. 1 in extending the stack immediately from the inner end of theflue 16 and forming the chamber with its innerwall flush with the corresponding side of the stack and thus with the roof 1 1 sloping only toward the outer wall, containing the openings 13 which are equipped' with the ram-devices 14 and aline with the similar openings 13 in the opposite wall, which lead to an area 18 between the chamber 10 and the furnace 5.

To operate the smelting furnace the pro- The stack 12 is charged with the ore to be finely pulverized conr ition, mixed with suit-', able refractory material, preferably coke, in lump-form to render the column of material, which is supplied to the stack throughits upper end, intersticial throughout and non-, packing to facilitate the assage through it of the hot gases from the urning fuel in the furnace 5, which reach the ore-column artially smelter], in a through the flue 16 and escape at the top of the stack. The ore su plied to the stack should be very finely, pu verized, and in the case of iron ore like that from the Mesaba range, should be pulverized to. a de ee that will enable it to pass through a undredmesh screen. The lower ei'id of the column by the dotted lines at 19 in Figs. 1 and 3,

cumulates as a forming about it the space 20, or into the downwardly-flaring shape indicated by the dotted line at 19 in Fig. 4, forming the space 21 at the outer side of the base of the orecolumn. The gases from, the furnace 5 pass through the fiue 16 directly into the space 20-, near the base thereof in the construction according to Fig. 1, assing around and through the expande base of the orecolumn and rising therein and assing through the ore in the stack. In t 1e con struction according to Figs. 3 and 4 the hot gases enter from the flue immediately into the lower end of the stack to rise through the intersticial column of ore therein; part of the gases descending into the space 20, or the space 21, as the case may be, and thence permeating and attacking the expanded base of the ore-column. The space adjacent to the ore -column base in the chamber 10 renders it a combustion-enhancing chamber for the gases to augment the intensity of their heat andthe intensity of their action on the ore, which is sufficient to melt the metal therein but not the silica and other earthy constituents. The molten metal acbath, the level of which is indicated at. 22, in the bottom of the chamber 10, whence it may be tapped ofi, from time to time, through the o enmg 15, the column of ore floating on t s molten bath. As the metal becomes melted out of the ore in the eX anded base of the column, the lumps of co e and unsmelted remnant of the ore, or gangue, require to be removed to be relaced by gravity with ore from the stack.

0 effect this the ram-devices 14 are actuated from time to time to reciprocate through the column-b ase and force-the unsmelted material ahead of them through the discharge-openings 13. The fine silica-may then be se aby screening the material t us discharged, from the lumps of coke, which may be used over again for its 'nonpacking pur ose. I

at I claim asnewand desire to secure by Letters Patent isi 1. In an ore-smelting furnace, the combination of 'a carbonaceous-fuel-burning fur nace, an ore-stack, a chamber beneath and of greater cross-sectional dimensions than the stack, said chamber having a roof from which the stack rises and. through which'it" discharges into the chamber, and a the forming neck leading from said fueLfurnace, at a point about midway between its upper and lower ends, into said chamber and stack.

near their junction, for the purpose set forth.

2. In an ore-smelting furnace, the combination of a carbonaceous-fuel-burning furnace, an ore stack, a chamber beneath and of greater cross-sectional dimensions than the stack; said chamber having a sloping roof from which the stack rises and through which it-discharges into the chamber, and, a flue-forming neck of solid carbonaceous material leading from said fuel-furnace into said chamber and stack near their junction, for the purpose-set forth.

3. In an ore-smelting furnace, the combination of a carbonaceous-fueLburning furnace, an ore-stack, a chamber beneath and of greater cross-sectional dimensions than the stack, said chamber having a roof from which the stack rises and through which it discharges into the chamber, and a flueforming neck of solid carbonaceous material leading from said fuelfurnace, at a pointabout midway between its upper and lower ends, into said chamber andstack near their junction, for the purpose set forth.

4. In an ore-smelting furnace, the combination of a carbonaceous-fuel-burning furnace, an ore-stack, a chamber beneath and of greater cross-sectional dimensions than the stack, said chamber having a roof from which the stack rises and through which it discharges into the chamber, openings 1n opposite walls of said chamber and ramdevices working in said openings. and a flue-' connection between the fuel furnace and said chamber and stack near their JUIlCtlOIl,

for the purpose set forth.

5. In an ore-smelting furnace, the combination .of a carbonaceousfuel-burning furnace, an ore-stack, a chamber beneath and of greater cross-sectional dimensions than the stack, said chamber having a roof from .which the stack rises and through which it discharges into the chamber, openings in opposite walls of said chamber and ram-de vices working in said openings, and a-fiueforming neck of solid carbonaceous material connectin said fuel-furnace from a point about mi Way between its ends with said chamber near its junction with the stack, for the purpose set forth. JOHN T. JONES.

In presence of K. M. CORNWALL, R. A. SOHAEFER. 

